Crypto assets advanced broadly on Wednesday, with bitcoin, ether and most major altcoins catching a bid—even as Zcash (ZEC) continued to break from the pack with another sharp decline.
Bitcoin rallied 6.6% over the past day to reach $93,000, reversing part of its recent pullback. Ether also recovered, briefly moving above $3,050 as overall sentiment improved.
Zcash remained the notable exception to the uptrend: after months of impressive gains, the token has now fallen more than 38% in the last week as traders take profits and unwind stretched long positions.
Derivatives markets also showed signs of renewed engagement. Perpetual futures volume climbed more than 5% to $44 billion in the past 24 hours, hinting at a combination of spot demand and fresh leveraged positioning behind Wednesday’s move.
Open interest (OI) for BTC, ETH and several top altcoins rose, pointing to steadier appetite for leveraged bets. SUI, SOL, BNB and ADA recorded the most significant OI increases. Funding rates across most tokens stayed positive, indicating that long exposure remains the favored positioning—while TRX and WLFI stood out as the few exceptions.
Institutional activity on the CME moved in the opposite direction. Open interest in standard bitcoin futures slipped to 121,670 contracts, its lowest level since February 2024. BTC options OI also fell, dropping to 46,000 BTC and reversing gains built up since early October. This decline suggests waning interest in CME’s regulated crypto products.
Ether’s institutional derivatives followed the same pattern: futures OI fell to 1.95 million ETH—its lowest since September—while options OI eased back to 275,000 ETH from recent highs above 350,000 ETH.
On Deribit, BTC and ETH puts are still priced at premiums over calls, although the gap has narrowed from earlier in the week. Block trading was dominated by BTC strangles and call butterfly setups, along with ether put spreads and call diagonal calendar spreads.
Altcoins showed strong follow-through during the session, outpacing bitcoin’s 6.5% rise. SUI and Chainlink’s LINK were among the top performers, soaring 30.8% and 24%, respectively. Their gains suggest the downtrend that has persisted since early October may be weakening, opening the door to a more constructive market structure.
Despite the strength, liquidity remains thin. Market depth has not recovered since the October crash, increasing the likelihood of oversized moves and making the market vulnerable if negative catalysts emerge.
Zcash extended its weekly slump with another 3% decline over the past day, cementing a 38% drop in seven days as traders continue locking in profits after its strong September–November run.
The “altcoin season” index currently sits at 21/100—hovering near historic lows. Although pockets of altcoin strength have emerged, overall investor interest remains concentrated in bitcoin rather than speculative rotation into smaller-cap assets.
